Amidst a profound economic and financial crisis, Europe's leaders must not ignore the rising popularity of extreme right-wing parties and radical anti-immigrant movements, and the threat they pose to multi-culturalism.

Reeling European governments and the Brussels bureaucracy will become even less patient than before in dealing with a region where their serial failures to enforce their myth of civic identity and multi-ethnic integration have undermined the narrative of Europe as a united, just, effective and relevant international actor.